


take my love and wear it over your shoulders

by alinaandalion



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Swan Queen Week Summer 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 14:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7718782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alinaandalion/pseuds/alinaandalion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma swallows and says, “So, do you want to talk?”</p><p>“I suppose we should,” Regina says softly, still staring down at her hamburger.  </p><p>Emma puts her food down and reaches over the desk to grab Regina’s hand.  “Hey.  I don’t really get what’s going on here, but you can tell me whatever it is, okay?  I just need you to talk to me.”</p><p>Regina sighs and squeezes Emma’s hand for a moment before saying, “Okay.  I think it was just that I realized this will be--it was the first moment where all of this felt <i>real</i>.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	take my love and wear it over your shoulders

**Author's Note:**

> For SQW day 3: insecurities. So, this was supposed to be longer. I might expand on it at some point because there's a lot going on here that I want to play with but there was no guarantee I would finish in time for today's prompt, much less this week. Or this month. Sooo... I decided to roll with this and expand at a later date. 
> 
> Title from "The Light" by Sara Bareilles.

Emma had planned on a quiet Saturday afternoon.  And even though that original plan hadn’t involved making out with Regina on the living room couch, Emma’s enjoying it a whole lot.  She’s busy trying to mentally calculate how much longer Henry is supposed to be gone while her fingers fumble with Regina’s bra clasp when she gets her answer.

“Moms!”  Henry practically screeches and Emma has to grab onto Regina’s hips to keep her from launching herself out of Emma’s lap and probably to the floor.  “Oh my God, my eyes!”

Emma huffs and cranes her neck to glance over the back of the couch at Henry as Regina slides off her lap to sit beside her.

“You weren’t supposed to be home yet, kid,” Emma says as she watches him shift his weight from one foot to the other, one of his arms tucked behind his back like he’s hiding something.  

She’s about to ask what he’s trying to sneak past them but then there’s a yip from behind him that sounds like a puppy.  

“Are you trying to sneak a dog into the house?” Regina asks as she stands up and walks over to Henry.

He at least looks a little embarrassed as he steps to the side and reveals a pretty big puppy sprawled on the floor.  It wags its tail furiously as it looks up at Regina, and Regina lets out this soft “oh” before bending down and petting it.

“Gramps said I could have him,” Henry says, his voice slipping a little into that plaintive little kid whine that he’s almost outgrown.  “And you guys did say I could get a dog.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think we imagined it quite like this,” Emma replies as she gets up and approaches the puppy and Regina, grinning at the way he’s trying to lick Regina’s face but can’t quite manage it because he’s too excited to stay still.

“She’s right, Henry,” Regina says as she looks up at him.  “And I suspect that David didn’t know this would be a surprise for us.”

“I was worried someone else would adopt him,” Henry says, getting down on his knees and scratching behind the puppy’s ears.  “I was trying to figure out how to convince you guys to let me adopt a Great Dane and then I thought, you know, maybe if you just saw him, you’d let me keep him.”

Emma sputters a bit on the whole Great Dane part because those dogs get fucking huge but she manages to get past that to say, “You are definitely Regina’s kid.”

Regina scoffs at that but there’s something in the way she smiles as she looks at Henry that makes Emma ache for a future that’s been hovering on the edge of her thoughts even though they haven’t talked about it yet.

 

*****

 

Later that night, after they had picked up where they’d left off that afternoon and Regina is curled up in Emma’s arms, Emma works up the courage to ask, “Have you thought about having any more kids?”

Regina stirs in her embrace.  “In general, or with you?”

“Um, well, I was kind of thinking it would be with me,” Emma says as she rubs Regina’s back.  “I mean, it’s just a thought.  It’s not like I’m asking you to, I don’t know, settle down with me forever and have two-point-five kids and--”

“Emma,” Regina breaks in.  She shifts and props herself up on her elbow.  “It’s okay.  I have thought about it.”

“Okay.”  Emma gazes up at her and licks her lips, swallows hard.  “And?”

“I think that, at some point, I would like to have another child.  With you.”  Regina smiles and presses her palm to Emma’s cheek.  She continues, “As for when, I think we’ll have to talk more about our relationship and what we want our future to look like.  What do you think?”

Emma grins and turns her head to press a kiss to Regina’s palm before saying, “Fuck, I love you so much.”

Then she pulls Regina down to her as Regina lets out a delighted laugh.  And she kisses her and holds on tight.

 

*****

 

Three days later, Regina shows up at the station with lunch and the dog on a leash.  Henry had named him Sam and for the most part, having a dog hasn’t changed that much.  Sure, he still hasn’t figured out that he shouldn’t piss on the carpet, but it’s getting better.

Sam trots over to Emma’s desk, pulling Regina along behind him, and Emma grins as he jumps up and balances his front paws on her legs and tries to lick her face.

“Down, Sam,” Regina says patiently.  He seems to ignore her for a second but then he gets down and pads back over to Regina and darts in a circle around her legs, entangling her in his leash.

Emma laughs and gets up to help free Regina, brushing a kiss against her cheek as she pulls the leash from Regina’s hand.  “Hey, babe.  I guess this isn’t a working lunch?”

Regina holds up the bag of takeout and says, “No.  I knew Mulan and Marian had plans so I thought it might be a good chance to talk about, well, us.”

Emma freezes for a moment then relaxes when she sees Regina’s soft smile.  “Okay.  I’m a little surprised that you want to do this now, but I suppose it’s as good a time as any.”

Regina chews on her lip as she glances away from Emma before she looks back and says, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.  And after I went home to take Sam for his walk, and I didn’t think—no, you’re right, we should wait.”

“Jesus Christ,” Emma mutters.  She grabs Regina’s hand before she can get it in her head to run out, and she brushes her thumb along Regina’s palm.  “This is a good time, Regina.  Okay?  I don’t know why you’re freaking out about this when I was the one who brought it up.”

Regina still looks unsure and a little skittish, but she nods her head and sets the bag down on Emma’s desk, pulling it open and digging out two wrapped-up hamburgers and a Styrofoam container that smells like sweet potato fries.  Emma leans over and loops the end of Sam’s leash around the arm of her desk chair and knots it.  She eases behind Regina and wraps her in a gentle hug, kissing her neck and then nuzzling her nose against Regina’s skin.

“You okay now?” Emma asks.

Regina sighs and sags a little in her embrace, her hands coming up to rest over Emma’s.  “Yes.  I’m sorry about that.  Come on, we should eat before it gets cold.”

Emma frowns but she lets go of Regina and settles back into her own chair as Regina sits down across the desk from her.  Sam whines as Emma unwraps her burger, and Emma glances down to see him standing between her legs and looking at her expectantly.

“Okay, buddy, just a little,” Emma tells him, tearing off a small chunk of meat and bun and feeding it to him before Regina can say anything.

“Emma, you shouldn’t feed him table scraps,” Regina says, sounding more than a little exasperated.

Emma wipes the dog slobber off her fingers on her jeans and shrugs as she eyes the open Styrofoam container.  She had been right:  sweet potato fries topped with cinnamon.  “It was  just a bite.  And I made sure that it didn’t have any cheese on it.”

Regina just shakes her head and takes a bite of her burger.  Sam is still whining a little and Emma considers giving him another little piece.  But Regina waves her right hand and his favorite toy, a stuffed penguin, appears in a small puff of purple smoke in her palm.  She hands it off to Emma, and Emma holds it under her desk and offers it to Sam.  He sniffs at for a moment before leaning forward and tugging it away from her.  Emma grins because he’s so goddamn cute as he flops down on the floor and gnaws gently on his toy.

Then her stomach growls and she focuses back on her food.  She’s about three bites into her cheeseburger when she realizes that Regina has been fiddling with her hamburger wrapper for the past minute instead of actually eating.

Emma swallows and says, “So, do you want to talk?”

“I suppose we should,” Regina says softly, still staring down at her hamburger.  

Emma puts her food down and reaches over the desk to grab Regina’s hand.  “Hey.  I don’t really get what’s going on here, but you can tell me whatever it is, okay?  I just need you to talk to me.”

Regina sighs and squeezes Emma’s hand for a moment before saying, “Okay.  I think it was just that I realized this will be--it was the first moment where all of this felt _real_.”

“Regina,” Emma murmurs.  “We don’t have to--”

“No, wait,” Regina cuts in, her brown eyes soft and beautiful and a little teary as she looks at Emma.  “I’m trying to say that--that we’ve never talked about our relationship in terms of the future.  Not like this.  And it’s the first time in so long that I’ve been this happy.  To then want more-- I realized how afraid I am of losing this.”

Emma tightens her grip on Regina’s hand and says, “Hey, hey, listen.  You’re allowed to want things and to be happy.  And I know that I haven’t said this yet, but--”  She pauses for a moment and swallows, flushing a little as she keeps going.  “You’re kind of it for me, okay?  I’m pretty positive that you’re the love of my life and I’m not planning on ever going anywhere.  I don’t know what that looks like for us.  I mean, I kind of have an idea, but we should probably be on the same page and--”

“Emma,” Regina says softly, smiling as she laces her fingers through Emma’s.  “You’re kind of it for me, too.”

Emma laughs, something unlocking inside her chest as she gets up and walks over to Regina.  She leans down and kisses her; it’s a little sloppy because Emma can’t stop grinning, but Regina murmurs a soft “love you” as she cups Emma’s face in her hands and it’s _everything_.  

Sam chooses right then to start barking and Emma groans, leaning her forehead against Regina’s for a moment, wanting to hold onto this, but then she turns and looks him up and down.  Sam prances around, tail wagging happily, and when Emma and Regina don’t respond, he barks again.  He then trips over his own feet and ends up sprawled on his ass.

“Come here, little guy,” Emma says, reaching over and pulling him into her arms.  

His tail starts wagging even harder now that he’s closer to Regina, and he wriggles in Emma’s arms until Emma finally just sort of tosses him into Regina’s lap.

Regina lets out a delighted laugh.  “Were you getting lonely under that desk?”

Emma watches him settle almost immediately in Regina’s lap, his tongue lolling out as he pants, and she shakes her head because it should have been obvious that he hasn’t been staying home alone but she’s just putting it together now.

“You take him with you to the office and you get mad at me for feeding him a couple of bites of food?” Emma asks, smirking.

Regina looks a little embarrassed, but she says, “He was so upset when I tried to leave him.  You would have done the same thing.”

Emma just grins.  “You’re such a softie.”

She kisses Regina, and Regina hums against her lips.  Then Sam tries to lick Regina’s face and his tongue ends up swiping across Emma’s mouth when she jerks back.  It’s gross.  But Regina cackles and Emma looks at her, beautiful and full of love, and it’s okay.  This is good.


End file.
